SMP client easy tutorial

[Crazyjeeper]

For those of use with dual or quad core processors that want to also use them to fold. There is a easy way to set it up using VMware.

Originally Posted by capreppy@HardOCP

There have been some questions regarding my setup for notfred's VM Appliance using VMWare Player. This guide will hopefully answer those questions. It is a work in progress and I will update the original post as questions/comments/concerns are posted.

Hardware/Software Configuration Suggestions:
These are suggestions. These are not hard and fast rules.

- 64-bit OS. Each VM will take 640MB of Physical RAM. The VMWare Application will literally take 640MB away from the OS to be used exclusively by the VM Instance. With 2VMs you're taking away 1.28GB. With modern GPUs carrying large amounts of RAM, the memory address space of an x86 OS can become quickly apparent.
- 4GB of RAM. For the same reason as above
- With 4 or more VMs on the same box (Core i7, Dual & Quad Socket rigs), a fast HDD is highly recommended. On bootup, the VMs are doing a lot of HDD access. It can and probably bring your machine to its knees when they are all booting up. If you can spread the VM Folders to different drives, this can help alleviate some of those issues.


Download the following:
notfred's VM Appliance (Additional information is also available on this page)
VMWare Player (A License Key is not required as this is freeware)
WinAFC (More information about it here. Also be sure to download the correct version (x86 or x64) for your OS)

Getting VM Files ready
You will need 1 instance of the VM Appliance for every 2 cores (physical or virtual).
I create a folder called SMP1 and SMP2. Where you place them doesn't matter.
- Dual Core, you'll only need SMP1 as you can only run 1 VM Instance
- Core i7 with Hyperthreading turned on, you'll need to set up SMP3 & SMP4.

Unzip the contents (2 files) of notfred's VM Appliance to each of these folders.
Edit "folding.vmx" in the folder SMP1 using WordPad. Do NOT use notepad as you may lose formatting making the file unusable by VMWare Player.
Change the Dispay Name to "SMP 1". I do this so that I can very quickly determine which instance is which.
Optional, but highly suggested. Change Memory from 640 to 1024 or better yet 1536 (512 x 3)
Wireless Configuration: If you are using Wireless, you will need to change ethernet0.connectionType to "nat". This is a quirk that I have discovered with notfred's as it is configured for e0000 which is usually your Wired Connection. If someone has been able to figure out a way to get "bridged" to work with wireless, I'd appreciate your comments and can update this guide accordingly. I am currently wired, but can test any wireless solutions that are provided.
Save the file.

Do the same for SMP 2.

Install VMWare Player
I install with default values. There is no anything special you will need to do to get it up and running. This will run on WinXP (x86 or x64), Vista (x86 or x64), or Win7 (x86 or x64). I have not confirmed Win7 personally, but I have not read any reports otherwise.
** Win7 compatability confirmed by Vaulter98c.

Getting WinAFC ready
Unzip WinAFC to the same folder you downloaded it to.
Edit "affinityinput.txt" and change the following:
Test Mode = 0 (if you want to make sure things are going to work correctly, set it to 1 and check the console for output. Set it back to 0 for the changes to take effect)
Under Application Profle lines add the following:

*\vmware-vmx.exe := PAIR0+PAIR1 [assign=2,priority=Idle]
*\FahCore_11.exe := PAIR0+PAIR1 [priority=High]
*\FahCore_14.exe := PAIR0+PAIR1 [priority=High]

The first line assigns it to both pairs of CPUs (CPU0&CPU1 + CPU2&CPU3). The assign statement tells it only give it 2 CPU cores. You can choose to use "BelowNormal" in the first line and give the VMs slightly higher than Idle priority, but I've found that the system gets a teeny bit sluggish (especially when running 4 VMs). You'll need to change "PAIR0+PAIR1" to the appropriate values for your CPU Type. Valid values are below.

The second and third line are for GPU and assigns it to both pairs of CPUs. There is NO assign statement which means that it spread out across all four CPUs. I set a "High" priority to ensure that the GPUs get all of the CPU cycles first and the leftovers go to the VMs. Since GPUs only need a few cycles, the vast majority do go to the VMs.

Profiler lines that duplicate a program file (ie, two lines that cover vmware-vmx.exe) are ignored. The Profiler will only use the last line associated with that program file.

Start WinAFC by double clicking on the WinAFC.exe (or WinAFC64.exe) file.
Right click on SysTray Icon for WinAFC and click on Settings.
Change Delay on Program Start to 120 (longer if you system takes a while to completely boot up). WinAFC needs to do a check on the CPU configuration. Sometimes when you get errors in the console, it is because this check failed.
Right click on SysTray Icon for WinAFC and click on Open Console.
If you are running the GPU client already, then you should see 2 entries for each GPU client that you are running. You will see one entry assigning the GPU client to each core on your box and the second line indicating that it is set to High Priority.
You'll need to investigate any entries in Yellow as those are errors.

Create a shortcut to WinAFC.exe (or WinAFC64.exe) and place it in the Startup Folder.

Valid CPU Options
In the Valid Profile Lines, use the values appropriate for your CPU
Intel & AMD Dual Core:

CPU0, CPU1, PAIR0

Intel QuadCore:

CPU0, CPU1, CPU2, CPU3, PAIR0, PAIR1

AMD QuadCore:

CPU0, CPU1, CPU2, CPU3, QUAD0

Intel Core i7:

CPU0, CPU1, CPU2, CPU3, CPU4, CPU5, CPU6, CPU7, PAIR0, PAIR1, PAIR2, PAIR3

Getting SMP1 Up and Running
Go to the folder for SMP1. Double click on folding.vmx.
This will open up a VMWare WIndow.

Take note of the following:
IP Address that is assigned to the VM
Host Name

Open up an instance of your internet browser (IE or FF or whatever).
In the address bar, type in the IP Address assigned to the VM
The main screen gives you the basic information regarding this instance of notfred's. You will notice that the user is notfred and his team number is the default value. We are going to change that.

Click on hyperlink to Reconfigure this host and any USB Drive
The next screen is where you will change information regarding this instance.
Change Username to your folding username
Change Team to 42134

Optional: You can leave Windows Networking Workgroup as DISKLESS. I normally change it to my home networking group

Proxy Hostname | Proxy Port | Proxy Username | Proxy Password : Populate only if you have a proxy server

Interface: honestly am not sure what values are valid here. I will ping notfred's for valid values for this field

Static IP | Subnet Mask | Default Gateway | DNS Server IP: leave blank if your router will assign an IP address. I use a Static IP address as I normally create an IE Favorite Entry for the VM Instance. It is possible the IP address can change as you add items to your network. If it does change, then you will have to go to the box that is running the VM and take a look at the new IP Address that it has been assigned to via the VMWare Player Console. I currently run several VMs on headless boxen so it isn't easy for me to get to it. A Static IP address prevents this issue from happening.

TFTP Server IP: leave blank unless you have a TFTP Server running. If you do, then the VM Instance can backup the files to this server and can also restore from this server. It should be noted that since this is a persistent VM, all data is also saved within itself. NO data is lost if the VM is shut down.

Click on Reconfigure. Click on here hyperlink or wait for the screen to refresh.
From Main Screen, Click on Remote Reboot Enabled Hyperlink. Confirm Reboot. Reboot should take a minute or two depending on your machine.

It should go back to the main screen after the reboot is complete. IF you changed to Static IP Address, change the IP Address in the address box to the Static IP Address you assgned to this VM Instance. You should see the new values for those entries that you have changed.

That's it. SMP 1 is up and running. Do the same for SMP 2.

Monitoring your VM
In your favorite F@H Monitoring Program (I recommend FaHSpy or FaHMon), add a new folder. In location, type in the following: "\\fold-XXXX\C\etc\folding\1\" where XXXX is the host name you took note of from the VMWare Player Console. Change the folder alias to whatever you want. If monitoring via FaHMon, click "Client is on a virtual machine". Within a few seconds, it should update and provide you current information on your new VM!!!

FAQ:
These are some common errors and the best way to resolve them. I will add to this as others have issues and we are able to resolve them.

** VM Console is showing "attempt to access beyond end of device"
This is due to a number of different things. Easiest way to correct this is to reboot the VM. Upon reboot, the VM frees up any unused memory and most of the time will clear up this message

** VM Console is showing the all threads have been killed
This is a sign that the VM Instance has been corrupted. I do not know of a way to correct this issue. Delete all files except "folding.vmx" from the folder that holds this VM. Yes, this means that all work up to this point is lost, but there isn't a way to recover it in the first place. From your original zip file that you downloaded, unzip a copy of "folding.vmdk" into your folder. Double click on folding.vmx (restart the VM) and reconfigure as you've done before. Because you've replaced the "folding.vmdk" file, the corruption is gone.

** VM is showing "check your DNS Server"
Network traffic on your network has prevented the VM from renewing the lease to the IP Addres that it needs (if Static IP Address) or it did not get a new lease for a Dynamic IP Address. Click inside your VM and hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot the VM. You will NOT be able to reboot via the Main Screen as the VM won't have a valid IP Address to get to it. This does occassionally happen to me when I try to reboot my Core i7 and 4 VMs try to restart all at the same time.

I set this up yesterday with 2 SMP clients on my Q6600. It was very simple. Should be giving me an additional 4000ppd.

[Quiky]

Why would you install virtualization, instead of just running it on the main operating system? Virtualizing it just kills the performance in cpu-critical applications.

Also, on a quad-core, you only need to run the -smp flag on ONE instance of the MPICH or DEINO client. It automatically spawns 4 applications, which use 100% of each core (so overall 100% usage).

[Crazyjeeper]

Originally Posted by Quiky

Why would you install virtualization, instead of just running it on the main operating system? Virtualizing it just kills the performance in cpu-critical applications.

Also, on a quad-core, you only need to run the -smp flag on ONE instance of the MPICH or DEINO client. It automatically spawns 4 applications, which use 100% of each core (so overall 100% usage).

From what I've read, this yields more ppd and is easy to setup. MY Q6600 gets between 4 and 5k ppd running 2 VMs. It does slow down things like winrar, but for general internet usage, music and even 720p video play back, it does everything normally. I also get 100% cpu usage with the VMs.

[chaos386]

Then how come your production has pretty much stopped? Or are you just not folding for FG right now?

[Crazyjeeper]

Originally Posted by chaos386

Then how come your production has pretty much stopped? Or are you just not folding for FG right now?

I pulled the 9600GT out. It was dumping too much heat for the amount of work it was doing. It was also making my 8800GTs run slow. The 9600GT has 64 shaders, vs 112 on the 8800GT, so it was making the 8800GT only use 64 of the 112, so I was only getting just over half of the ppd I get now from each card.